ST oneshots
by Usagi Elric
Summary: Another collection of drabbles, this time from various times and places in Star Treks. Most will probably be inspired by memes or other things from my tumblr, so enjoy! They'll probably contain a lot of Pavel Chekov as he's my muse.
1. Jim's Gone

'_Jim's gone.'_

Spock had watched him die painfully slowly barely five minutes ago, and now he was making his way around and notifying each of the crewmembers accordingly. He approached another group of ensigns that were staying together in order to both celebrate and be checked over by a medic. "Captain Kirk didn't survive." He said simply, and despite his efforts to void himself of emotions, found himself feeling miserable. He watched as their smiles slowly disappeared, and mentioned that he extended his condolences before moving on.

He did so for a while before reaching a certain teenager he instantly knew wasn't going to take it well, and dreaded telling. He walked up to Chekov stiffly, seeing the boy so happy was almost painful, as he knew that was going to disappear. He was jumping around excitedly, chattering nonstop to anyone whose ears were within range, and accidentally letting Russian words slip every now and then.

Chekov spotted Spock and turned to face him, grinning, turning his chatter to the man. "Mister Spock, ze ship eez working! Ve vixed eet!" He exclaimed, happiness bubbling into his voice. He was grinning, and looked positively ecstatic. "Vere is ze Keptin, ve need to celebrate!" In all honesty, Spock knew he should have been more prepared for that, but he wasn't. He put a hand on Pavel shoulder to hold him still and avoided looking him in the eyes until he actually spoke. "Chekov, the captain…He didn't make it. I'm sorry."

His smile slowly fell away as realisation sunk in, and his eyes grew wide with disbelief. Spock didn't remove his hand; he knew that Chekov needed someone to be there for him right now. "B-but…but he…he can't! Ze Keptin can't be…no!" He stumbled out, trying to form coherent sentence but words failed him. An immense heaviness weighed on his chest, and his bottom lip quivered as he looked around, as if trying to see Jim walking around anywhere. He breaths became almost heavy pants as he tried to stave away the near sobs, and his eyes prickled with tears. The world seemed to crash down over the boy's shoulders.

"Chekov, please sit down." Spock requested seeing that the boy was in bad shape, and guided him to the nearest seat and crouched in front of him. "I know how hard this is for you, the Captain...Jim, was my friend too." He said quietly. Pavel leaned forwards, his hands steeped in front of his mouth, trying to hide the fact that he was trembling. Tears slowly began to slip down his cheeks, as he stared blankly ahead of him.

Spock had almost no idea what to do when the teenager lurched himself forward and buried himself in the first officer's chest, so he did what he had seen most humans do, and wrapped his arms around him. Sobs racked through his small frame, and two small tears fell from Spock's eyes before he closed them tight, holding onto Pavel tightly.


	2. Star Struck

_**"Star Struck: Our characters space craft has broken down, and life support is on the fritz. Can our character's fix the problem or will they die in space?"**_

Pavel had volunteered to go on an investigation with Kirk, and begrudgingly Jim agreed, hardly able to disagree with the begging teenager. They weren't in need of McCoy, the planet showed no sign of life forms despite being a Class M, and both had basic first aid training; Bones could beam down if needed. It was his arrogance and confidence that made Kirk decide to ignore protocol and go down with only the ensign.

There hadn't been any signs that there was going to be a malfunction, the shuttle had passed all pre-rec tests, and had never encountered problems before, so Chekov couldn't for the life of him figure out why they were now stranded on the opposite side of the planet, drifting into space slowly, without life support.

"Keptin, I..." Pavel didn't know what to say, he felt like he'd failed, and once again his failure was going to cost someone's life. "Don't worry about it kiddo, we'll get outta here, okay? Don't give up on me, I need you to keep working, we're not dead yet." He said without looking at the boy, they swiftly moved about the cabin, swivelling in their seats and pressing all sorts of buttons and flicking a manner of switches on and off, trying assorted combinations in attempts to get at least their life support back up.

Communications had been cut out as well, so they couldn't call for help from the Enterprise, and the crew assumed it was interference from the planet. They were dead adrift in space. If it weren't for the front view window they wouldn't even be able to be sure if they were still near the planet at all.

Before long the temperature started to rise, their bodies giving out heat faster than the shuttle could lose, and the oxygen slowly depleting. Soon it got to the point where Kirk couldn't do much but lie on the metal floor in hopes of cooling himself down. "Goddamn it…" He muttered, leaning forwards off the floor to yank his golden command shirt off over his head and toss it over to his seat, leaving the black under-shirt. Pavel paid no attention; he ignored the almost searing heat and continued on with his work, barely aware of anything.

After another half an hour and Chekov couldn't concentrate any more. He hesitantly lowered his hands from the interface and slumped in his chair. "Keptin?" He asked quietly, his throat hoarse and dry. Jim slowly lolled his head to face Pavel's direction. "Yeah?" He replied, sounding dazed and slurring slightly. Chekov paused before asking, his voice small and quiet, full of fear. "Are ve…are ve going to die?" He all but whispered, his back to the other. Jim froze, snapped out of his stupor, he sat up and sighed.

"No, we're gonna be fine. The Enterprise is bound to notice something sooner or later. Either that or the shuttle will come back on. Something will happen, all right? I can promise you, you're not going to die here." He reassured him, before sighing again. "Come away from there. Come sit back here." He shifted to rest his back against a plastic box full of equipment. Chekov nodded, still frowning slightly in concern. He slowly stood, and shuffled over to sit next to Jim.

Jim didn't look up; he just stared at the opposite wall. "Ensign, why are you here? Not here specifically, but why are you in Starfleet? You're still only a kid, and Starfleet isn't always fun and games, you know that. But still you're here, even after Nero." He looked over at the boy, "How come?" Pavel looked down at his hands folded in his lap. "Starfleet, going to space, eet eez somezing I haff vanted to do since I vas a child, and I haff alvays been a quick learner, so I knew I could. I didn't vant to stay at home for most of my life, and so I made myself be better, learn faster zan ewerybody else. Ewen after vhat ve haff been zhrough, I still vouldn't leaffe eet for ze world, for all ze worlds."

Jim nodded and thought over his words for a while, it took longer than he expected as the lack of oxygen and abundant heat was making his mind sluggish.

"Vat about you, Keptin? Vhy did you join Starfleet?" The Russian teen inquired curiously.  
"Well…I was probably always gonna join at some point, I was just putting it off. People always expected me to enlist just cause my dad was a captain, and I hated doing what people told me to. But when Pike found me after that bar fight, well he gave me a hell of a talk. Dared me to do better, guess I fell for that one cause the next morning I was at the shipping yard. That's where I met Bones," Jim chuckled at the memory of their first meeting,  
"He looked like hell, trying to hide in the bathroom cause there were no windows or something. Pretty sure he was at least a bit tipsy at the time." He started chuckling that descended into a low coughing fit, and decided at that point that it was best he stopped, it made his head spin.

Pavel looked at him with concern before deciding that Jim was no more okay than he was.

They stayed silent for what felt like forever, until Jim broke it, a frown having formed as his thought process progressed.  
"Ensign, what would happen if a solar flare from a blue giant caused heated radiation to leak through a weak spot in the insulation, frying the resistors?" Jim asked rhetorically, he already knew the answer.  
"Ze system vould short-circuit eef eet caused some of ze vires to meld, but keptin I haff already—"

"No no, bear with me kiddo. What if the radiation reached the dilithium core, causing it to overload the system?"

"Vouldn't ze core's fuses stop zat?"

"Not if the quantity was large enough."  
Pavel stopped to think about the possibility, or as much as he could in his inebriated state.

Life seemed to fill him once more as he jumped up and closed the gap between him and the back of the cabin, grabbing a tool pack on the way. Using his hands he pried off the panel and ducked closer to get a clearer look in the dim light as they were facing away from the system's star. He very carefully traced his fingers along the colour-coded wires, feeling gently along to where the aforementioned resistors connected with them.

Once found he kept his free hand on it, then used the other to once more trace his way back, applying more pressure this time. Once he felt where the copper had melted together he used to pliers to cut them as closely as he could, then soldered them back together accordingly. He did this to all the lines not whole and separate, until they were all back in their respective places.

He dusted off residue from the soldering onto his pants,  
"Keptin, I zink ve might be able to establish communications now!" He said excitedly, keeping his eyes on the panel to make sure it was all right.  
"I couldn't get all systems online, ze flare fried ze crystals almost completely, zere vas only just enough for zat." He turned around and immediately panicked, finding Jim's eyes to have closed, and his breathing barely detectable. He scrambled over to the elder, kneeling in front of him and shaking him by the shoulders.

"Keptin! Keptin vake up, open your eyes, come on!" He urged, tapping the man on the cheek. Jim managed to give the teen a heavy lidded gave that kept sliding shut every few seconds. Pavel took this as the best he was going to get and dashed up to the conn, ignoring the way that the excitement and movement made the world spin around him.  
"Chekov to Enterprise, come in Enterprise!" he said into the comms with a panicked edge to his tone.

"Aye wee lad, good to hear from you! Have you landed alright?" came a thick, unmistakable Scottish accent.  
"Nyet Meester Scott, ve haff lost power and ze Keptin is barely conscious, ve need you to beam us out!"  
"I cannae do tha' from where we are righ' now, the planet will cause too much interference. Give us a minute to reposition her and I'll have you ou' o' there in no time." Scotty replied in an instantaneously more serious tone.

"Aye sir, on standby." He replied, immediately hopping up from the controls to dash back to where his captain lay unconscious.

"Keptin? Just a meenute more, I promise." Pavel murmured breathlessly to deaf ears, subconsciously grabbing a fistful of the other's black sleeve as he gazed out of the front view screen, waiting for what he now called home to appear where he could see the edge of the planet as the shuttle spun at a painfully slow pace. It seemed like forever, the seconds each taking an eternity longer than the last. His adrenal high began to wore off and his limbs suddenly weighed three times as much, and breathing was beginning to become more labouring.

Just before he felt his own consciousness slip away, he saw golden lights whizz around him, and the shuttle disappeared from his sight, to be replaced with the familiarity of the transporter room. The temperature change was drastic, and he felt his lungs burn as he gasped in the fresh air. The sudden intake of pure air made his head throb, but it was better than suffocating.

McCoy was there waiting and at Jim's side in an instant, hauling him to his feet with the help of nurse Chapel while Scotty helped Pavel to his. The time between there and the Med bay was a distant blur, and it was then that the Russian let himself slip, knowing he was safe, and so was his captain.

—~—

A short while later he opened his eyes again, blurrily looking around for something familiar, until his eyes met the shape of what he inferred to be Kirk.  
"Hey there Pavel." He said softly with a gentle smile, holding a fist out, which Chekov bumped his own against, a smile tweaking weakly at his lips.  
"Knew you wouldn't let me down kiddo."


End file.
